WANTED...Readers For The Summer In MackinVIA!

For the past three summers, Diana Hockenberry, my amazing library paraeducator, and I have had a summer reading program of some kind.  We have teamed up with places like Barnes & Noble and Scholastic to bring rich reading experiences to our young people throughout the summer.  This summer we are not going to open the library, because we will be busy converting the collection to the book store model of classification

The great thing....I am not at all worried about what our students will read and where they will read at over the summer, thanks to a few programs they can participate in right in Van Meter.

The first is the Van Meter Public Library's Summer Reading Program, which they are going to draw kids into reading and the library through fun activities throughout the summer.

Second, is a program that I came up with over the weekend when I was thinking about not having a summer reading program or summer hours to check out books from our libraries at school.

It dawned on me....

Our young people don't have to come to the school library to have access to a great part of our collection.  We now have over 300 eBooks within Mackin VIA and they can access these anywhere...at home, at the public library, visiting grandparents, even while on vacation or on the road.  

So, I then decided create a little eBook Summer Reading Program of our own.

By creating these super fun posters using Tuxpi Wanted Poster creator, I was able to create something that would kick off an entire campaign to connect students to a variety of eBooks with topics for everyone.  And as a 4th grader said, "My Dad loves learning about all of the facts in the nonfiction eBooks we have at Van Meter.  He can read with me too!"  

On Monday, I started telling all of our students about the eBook Summer Reading Program.  They are so excited to participate while still having a super time reading.  

They all will take home the "eBook Summer Reading Program Log" with the title of the book and a signature of an adult stating "Who Saw You Reading!" (Please feel free to use the WANTED poster or log for your own school....if you have trouble, just email me and I can send them.) 

And of course, wouldn't a "WANTED" sign be good to catch their attention....especially when there are rewards involved?  Well they are!  Gift cards, books, and t-shirts just to name a few. 

I thought of a couple of ways within Mackin VIA to make it more personalized for the eBook Summer Reading Program. 

Within my Mackin account, I made a new VIA Group within the "Mackin VIA Groups Title Management page, under the VIA tab in the right hand corner.  I created the "Lets Get  Started...Summer eBook Reading Program" Group.   

Once I had put several eBooks into the new Group, I went into Van Meter Elementary's Mackin VIA to see how it looked!  I found it right away under "View Groups" on the left hand side of the page.

For the Summer Reading eBook Program, I added a variety of eBooks to the new Group.  I wanted to find high interest nonficiton eBooks on a large variety of topics.  I added books about science, the environment, animals, dinosaurs, skateboarding, places to travel, biographies, and many more.

I also added a few of the eBooks that were just added to our VIA...thanks to Heartland AEA.  They are classic titles such as Peter Pan and The Jungle Book.  Last week one of the 5th graders came up to me during library/technology time and said, "The Wizard of Oz is my favorite book and I found it in VIA.  I am having so much fun reading it online."

With the reading logs that they took home, I also created a sticker to put on the back of the Mackin VIA bookmarks.  The labels included the website, username and password for VIA.

 My 3rd grade friends helped me put these together.  They look great!

So this summer we are going to do things a little different than ever before.

But the best part....We are so excited to GET CAUGHT reading!